Mr. Speaker, this is a fundamentally important issue we are debating. We see that the Conservatives have turned the House of Commons into a circus. We have seen that they have taken the traditional work of committees and turned them into trained marionettes or soft puppets, but what holds Parliament to account are the officers of Parliament.
This report we are debating is a serious report. We can look at all the recommendations that were brought forward by men and women of all political stripes who believe in accountable government, regardless of what political party one is from.
We see the Conservatives turning this into a circus, and we see the Liberals not wanting to discuss it. We are talking about an act that was put in place to hold government leaders to account. Instead, and this is the ultimate circus and fraud we are seeing, 244,000 civil servants will now be treated, under this act, the same as key ministers, key deputy ministers, political partisan staff of the Prime Minister's Office, and the person cleaning the office in Winnipeg. They will be treated the same as one of the Prime Minister's insider friends, like Bruce Carson. It is a joke.